Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

This conversation is moderated according to USA TODAY's
community rules.
Please read the rules before joining the discussion.

Circle Centre mall posts record profit

James Briggs, james.briggs@indystar.com
Published 4:21 p.m. ET May 24, 2016

CLOSE

Circle Centre mall has seen at least eight retailers, including Gap, Gap Kids and Abercrombie & Fitch, recently close or announce plans to leave early in 2016. However, experts say downsizings nationwide are partly to blame. (Dwight Adams/IndyStar)
Wochit

Buy Photo

IndyStar's first full year at Circle Centre mall helped the Downtown shopping center record its most profitable year.(Photo: Charlie Nye/The Star)Buy Photo

New tenants helped Circle Centre mall in Downtown Indianapolis record its most profitable year ever in 2015.

The 20-year-old mall finished the year with $11.2 million in profit on $24.7 million in revenue. That was an increase in profit of $2.6 million, or 30 percent, over 2014.

Mall manager Simon Property Group attributed the growth to the first full year of IndyStar's lease, upgrades to the United Artists Circle Centre 9 theater and the addition of the sports bar Yard House. IndyStar in 2014 leased 100,000 square feet of space that had been occupied by Nordstrom.

"Occupancy and sales levels have been maintained and poised to grow as the evolution of the property continues to attract a new wave of exciting restaurants, entertainment venues and retailers to Downtown Indianapolis," Simon said in a report to the city.

Circle Centre is owned by 19 Downtown businesses, including Simon, which owns a 14.7 percent stake. Indianapolis-based Simon doesn't provide financial information on individual shopping centers, but it issues annual reports on Circle Centre to the city, which owns the land the mall is on.

As of Dec. 31, Circle Centre was more 90.8 percent leased, not counting anchor tenants, according to Simon's report. The 1 million-square-foot mall had 35,598 square feet of vacant shop space.

While those numbers are solid for an urban mall, they're underwhelming in the context of Simon's portfolio. Circle Centre finished 2015 with $329.62 in sales per square foot, a key metric for mall performance, compared with $620 in sales per square foot across all of Simon's properties. Simon's shopping centers in 2015 had overall occupancy of 96.1 percent.

The landscape at Circle Centre already has changed since the effective date of Simon's report to the city. Nearly a dozen retailers have closed since the first of the year, including longtime stores such as Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and Johnston & Murphy. A couple of high-profile restaurants, Johnny Rockets and California Pizza Kitchen, also have closed.

As of Dec. 31, Simon had $8.9 million in leases on the books for 2016. It has more than $6.8 million in guaranteed leases for 2017 and more than $5 million a year secured for 2018 through at least 2020.

Circle Centre last year generated $2.2 million in real estate taxes, $777,110 in personal property taxes and $7.4 million in sales taxes. The mall also sent $940,780 in food and beverage taxes to the Capital Improvement Board.

Call IndyStar reporter James Briggs at (317) 444-6307. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesEBriggs.